Service representative and remote location document communication

ABSTRACT

The present disclosure provides apparatus, systems, and methods for service representative and remote location document communication. One or more embodiments include a memory, and a processor configured to execute executable instructions stored in the memory to identify a remote location of a customer, identify a type of device available to be utilized at the remote location, and provide to the device at the remote location instructions for capturing information from a document.

FIELD OF DISCLOSURE

The present disclosure relates to service representative and remotelocation document communication.

BACKGROUND

Service representatives in some industries sometimes have to communicatedocuments or information thereon between their location and a remotelocation at which the documents are located. For example, bankingcustomers often need or desire the interaction with a customer servicerepresentative to aid them in doing a transaction.

In many instances, the best interaction is in-person; however, sometimesin-person communication is not possible. In such situations, often thecustomer contacts the company via a telephone and transacts business inthat manner. However, in some circumstances, it may be difficult totransact business in this manner, such as when documents have to bepassed between the customer and the company, such as in a mortgagetransaction or automobile purchase.

This can be problematic for a number of reasons. For instance, there maybe no way to transmit the documents between the customer and servicerepresentative, the customer may not be skilled enough to operate acommunication device, or the documents are received by the company, butnot sent directly to the service representative thereby slowing thetransaction down, among other issues.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE FIGURES

FIG. 1 illustrates a communication structure that can be utilizedaccording to one or more embodiments of the present disclosure.

FIG. 2 illustrates a method of transacting business between a servicerepresentative and the customer according to an embodiment of thepresent disclosure.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

The present disclosure provides apparatus, systems, and methods forservice representative and remote location document communication.Embodiments disclosed herein can facilitate the use of multiple servicerepresentatives to be able to service a particular customer as thelocation can be identified and executable instructions can be used togain functionality of the devices located at the remote location.Additionally, executable instructions, in some embodiments, can be usedto direct documents or information captured by a device at the remotelocation directly to the service representative working with thatparticular customer thereby speeding up the transaction, among otherbenefits.

In some embodiments, the service representative can be allowed tocontrol one or more functions of a device located at a remote locationfrom where the service representative is located. This can bebeneficial, for example, in some situations because the customer neednot understand how to use the device to transmit a document.

For instance, elderly, non-technically savvy, blind, or customers whocannot read instructions on operating a device may benefit from suchembodiments.

Further, in some embodiments, this control can be established withoutinvolvement of the service representative or the customer so thatneither party has to be skilled in device connectivity or networkcommunication.

In the following detailed description of the present disclosure,reference is made to the accompanying drawings that form a part hereof,and in which is shown by way of illustration how one or more embodimentsof the disclosure may be practiced. These embodiments are described insufficient detail to enable those of ordinary skill in the art topractice the embodiments of this disclosure, and it is to be understoodthat other embodiments may be utilized and that process and/orstructural changes may be made without departing from the scope of thepresent disclosure.

It will be understood that the computing systems and the computingsystem components of the present disclosure, as generally described andillustrated in the figures herein, may be arranged and designed in awide variety of different configurations. Thus, the followingdescription of the present disclosure is not intended to limit the scopeof the disclosure, but is representative of one or more embodiments ofthe disclosure.

FIG. 1 illustrates a communication structure that can be utilizedaccording to one or more embodiments of the present disclosure. In theembodiment illustrated in FIG. 1, the structure 100 includes a companycommunication system 110 and a remote communication system 114. In someembodiments, communications between these systems can include audio,video, printing, scanning, faxing, instant messaging, e-mailing, and/orother communications types.

In the embodiment illustrated in FIG. 1, the company communicationsystem 110 includes a Customer Service Representative (CSR) subsystem116. The CSR subsystem is utilized to conduct a communication sessionwith a customer at a remote location.

In some embodiments, the company communication system 110 could havemultiple CSR subsystems, for example, wherein each servicerepresentative has a computing device. The computing device may includeor be connected to other devices having audio, video, print, scan, fax,instant message, and/or e-mail functionalities among other functions.

For example, in some embodiments, the computing device may have a cameraand microphone integrated into the device and in some embodiments, suchfunctionalities can be provided by a separate camera and/or microphoneattached to the computing device either directly (wired or wirelessly),or indirectly (e.g., via a network). Accordingly, in some embodiments,some components of the system 110 can be shared between CSR's, such asthe printer or fax machine.

The company system 110 can also include a Wide Area Network (WAN)connected computing device 118. Such a device can be used to send andreceive information via a WAN, such as the Internet 112, as illustratedin the embodiment of FIG. 1, and/or other types of WANs (e.g., anintranet). Such devices can include one or more processors 120 andmemory 122.

Memory 122 can be used to store executable instructions that can beexecuted to provide the functionalities described herein and can storedata to be utilized by the executable instructions or for other reasons.For example, executable instructions can be utilized to identify alocation of a customer, identify the type of device available to beutilized at a remote location and can be used to provide (e.g., to thedevice at the remote location) instructions for capturing informationfrom a document (e.g., the document image, or information derived froman image), among other functions. In some embodiments, the deviceproviding one or more of the functionalities of the CSR subsystem 116may be the WAN connected computing device 118.

As one of ordinary skill in the art will appreciate, a computing devicemay include a processor in communication with one or more memory storagelocations and may include electronic chips having hardware logic, e.g.application specific integrated circuits (ASICs), associated with one ormore ports. Embodiments of the various computing devices are not limitedto a number, type, or size of processor or memory resources.

Computer executable instructions may reside on the various computingdevices. For example, computer executable instructions in the form offirmware and/or software may be resident on a network within the companycommunication system 110, in the memory of a service representative'scomputing device, a network management station and/or one or morerouters, hubs, and/or switches, and may be executable by theprocessor(s) and/or logic thereon. Also, computer executableinstructions may be resident in a number of locations on variouscomputing devices in the network as may be employed in a distributedcomputing network.

As used in this disclosure, a “distributed computing network” means theuse of multiple computing devices in a network to execute various rolesin executing instructions, as described herein. “Software”, as usedherein, may include a series of executable instructions that may bestored in memory and executed by the hardware logic of a processor(e.g., transistor gates) to perform a particular task. Memory, as thereader will appreciate, may include random access memory (RAM), readonly memory (ROM), and may be stored on any suitable medium such asnon-volatile memory (such as Flash memory), hard disks, memorycircuitry, etc., which can store instructions executable on theprocessor and data to be used by the instructions.

Embodiments of the present disclosure may be performed by software,hardware in the form of logic, and/or applications, e.g. aself-contained hardware and/or software component that interacts with alarger system, on a computing system and/or system components thereofshown herein or otherwise known to those of ordinary skill in the art. Asoftware application may come in the form of a file and handle aspecific task within a larger software system.

For the present disclosure any suitable computer-usable orcomputer-readable medium may be utilized. Examples of thecomputer-usable or computer-readable medium include, but are not limitedto, an electronic, magnetic, optical, electromagnetic, or semiconductordevice.

More specific examples of the computer-readable medium include, but arenot limited to, the following: a portable computer diskette, a harddisk, an erasable programmable read-only memory (EPROM or Flash memory),a portable compact disc read-only memory (CD-ROM), an optical storagedevice, a transmission media such as those supporting the Internet or anintranet, logic programmed into hardware, or a magnetic storage device.Note that the computer-usable or computer-readable medium could even bepaper or another suitable medium upon which the program is printed, asthe program can be electronically captured, via, for instance, opticalscanning of the paper or other medium, then compiled, interpreted, orotherwise processed in a suitable manner, if necessary, and then storedin a computer memory. A computer-usable or computer-readable medium maybe any medium that contains, stores. communicates, or transportscomputer-executable instructions for use by or in connection withcommunication structure 100.

The computer-readable medium may be transitory or the computer-readablemedium may be non-transitory. The computer executable instructions maybe transmitted using any appropriate medium, including but not limitedto the Internet, wire line, optical fiber cable, RF, etc.

In the embodiment illustrated in FIG. 1, the company communicationsystem 110 includes multiple devices for providing the variousfunctionalities described. The WAN connected computing device can beutilized to provide a number of functions for the company communicationssystem 110. For example, the device 118 can be used to send and receiveinstructions from the remote system 114 and/or can be used to store data(e.g., identification information, location information, etc.)

This information can be part of a database and/or can be received fromthe remote system 114. For example, in some embodiments, the companycommunication system 110 can include a table of location informationand/or device information for those locations.

For instance, a banking location (e.g., a brick and mortar bank, alocation in a retail/grocery store, etc.) may have an area that includesa camera, microphone, printer, scanner, fax machine, and/or a computingdevice that can be used by a customer to conduct a communication sessionwith a CSR. In such an arrangement, the company communication system mayhave data stored in memory that provides executable instructions forconnecting a session between a CSR (e.g., device 118) and a customer(e.g., the camera, microphone, printer, scanner, fax machine, and/orcomputing device used by the customer) at that particular remotelocation and instructions.

Some embodiments may also include data regarding how the companycommunication system can establish control over one or more of thedevices to facilitate capture of a document or information from adocument. Some embodiments can also include instructions for forwardingthat information or captured document data to the company communicationsystem.

In some embodiments, control can be provided such that the customer needonly place the document up to the camera or onto the scanner or faxmachine and the CSR or the company communications system can adjust thecharacteristics of the image capture to ensure they capture theinformation needed from the document. Such an embodiment can beparticularly beneficial when dealing with customers that have littletechnical know-how, customers that may not speak the language of theCSR, or customers that may not be able to read directions for operationof the device.

The remote system 130 of the embodiment of FIG. 1 also includes a WANconnected computing device 124 and includes a customer subsystem 130.The WAN connected computing device 124 includes a processor 126 andmemory 128 that can store executable instructions and data as discussedherein with respect to the processor and memory of device 118. Invarious embodiments, the functionalities of elements 124 and 130 can beprovided by a single device or by multiple devices.

FIG. 2 illustrates a method of transacting business (e.g., communicatinga document) between a service representative and a customer at a remotelocation according to an embodiment of the present disclosure.

In block 232, the method of FIG. 2 includes receiving a request for acustomer communication session from a remote location. The method alsoincludes receiving and processing customer identification information toidentify a particular customer that is to be conducting thecommunication session at block 234. In some embodiments, the informationreceived can be received with the request.

The method of FIG. 2 also includes receiving and processing at least oneof location or device information to determine what devices at theremote location are available for conducting the session in block 236.As discussed above with respect to the customer identificationinformation, in some embodiments, the information received can bereceived with the request or the information of elements 234 and 236 canbe received together, in some embodiments.

A two-way communication session can be created wherein a servicerepresentative's device can control at least one function of a device atthe remote location to actuate the device to capture informationprovided by the customer as illustrated at block 238. The method of FIG.2 also includes receiving the captured information and providing it tothe service representative's device during the communication session atblock 240.

The method of FIG. 2 may be better visualized using an examplecommunication system. In this example, the company communication systemhas many CSR's that service customers. The customer arrives at a remotelocation that is equipped with a camera, microphone, printer, andscanner (e.g., an all in one print/scan/fax device would be one suitabledevice).

A communication session is initiated between a customer and a CSR. Insome embodiments, the nature of the matter can be determined and thesession request can be directed to a special CSR that handles thoseparticular matters (e.g., mortgage specialist rather than a generalbanking CSR). This can be accomplished in any suitable manner such asanswering one or more questions initiated by a computing device locatedat the remote location or in discussion with an initial CSR that mayroute the session elsewhere once the nature of the matter is known.

The company communication system and/or the CSR can receive informationto aid in the creation of the communication session. For example,information regarding the remote location can be received. For instance,this information can be the branch number of the bank, address, phonenumber or IP address from which the communication is originating, orother identifying information that can be provided by the remotelocation, the customer, or inherent in the communication received.

In some embodiments, information about the customer can also be obtainedvia the communication. This can include their location or one or moredevice types if they are using a portable device or an at home computingdevice. Some or all of such information can be provided before thecommunication begins (e.g., at the time the individual becomes acustomer of a bank), or during the communication either by conveying theinformation in the session or some information may be inherent in thecommunication type or information provided by the remote device.

In some embodiments, such as if the customer is located at a bankbranch, the information about the device types available at the branchcan be stored within the company communication system and can be lookedup by executable instructions. This can also occur if the customer haspreviously provided their device information and it has been stored inmemory.

In some embodiments, this information can be used to identify executableinstructions stored on the company communication system or at the remotesystem that can be used to allow the CSR to control one or more devicesor functionalities thereof to capture a document or information thereon.For example, the information can provide the model number or serialnumber of the scanner located at the remote location and instructionscan be stored that can be executed to allow instructions from the CSR tobe executed by the scanner, such as to change resolution, crop an area,change exposure, black and white or color selection, single side, doubleside, and other such functions.

Another example would provide for a CSR to print a document directly toa printer at the remote location. This may be beneficial in gettingdocuments to the customer (e.g., copy of the title to a vehicle) orproviding documents needing signature. Such embodiments allow thetransaction to continue in real time or in near real time as documentsare shared between the parties.

This can also be accomplished on a mobile device where the customer hasgranted the CSR or company the ability to control their device during atransaction. In such embodiments, the device may be controlled by theCSR to take an image of a document to capture the document orinformation thereon or to take an image of something like damage to anautomobile and create an image document to be sent to the CSR.

In some embodiments, executable instructions can be utilized to routethe captured image information directly to the CSR. In such embodiments,a direct two-way communication session is created allowing informationto flow quickly between the CSR and the customer. This can beaccomplished in any suitable manner.

For example, a header or code (e.g., alpha numeric code) can be added tothe image information that includes routing information and/orinformation about the origin of the image information. This routing ororigin information can be read by executable instructions and thecommunication can be directed to the particular CSR conducting thecommunication session based on, for example, CSR identificationinformation for that particular CSR or a session identifier among othermethods. Such embodiments can be utilized to provide real time or nearreal time document exchange which can increase the speed of suchtransactions and may allow for transactions to be accomplished thatpreviously have not been able to be accomplished remotely.

In various embodiments, executable instructions can be provided toinitiate the monitoring of incoming communications from the remotelocation. Once received, these communications can be forwarded to theCSR conducting the communication session to minimize delay in gettingthe documentation to the CSR. In some embodiments, if a physicaldocument still needs to be sent to the CSR, executable instructions canbe provided to pause the communication session until the documentsarrive in the CSR's hands.

In some such embodiments, a routing cover sheet with applicable routinginformation can be provided to the customer at the remote location sothat the documents will be routed to the CSR and so the customer doesnot have to fill out a form. For example, a FedEx® label or faxtransmittal cover sheet can be printed out via the printer at the remotelocation and attached to the package to be mailed or faxed with routinginformation thereon to direct it to the CSR.

In some embodiments, the received document can be saved by the CSR to adocument storage area (e.g., within or in communication with the companycommunication system) and executable instructions can be provided toallow other CSR's to access the documents in real time, so there islittle to no time delay in providing this information to the otherCSR's.

Method embodiments of the present disclosure can be implemented viacomputer executable instructions in the form of software, hardware,and/or firmware, or a combination thereof. In the above specification,examples and data provide a description of the method and applications,and use of the system and method of the present disclosure. Since manyexamples can be made without departing from the spirit and scope of thesystem and method of the present disclosure, this specification merelysets forth some of the many possible embodiment configurations andimplementations.

Although specific examples have been illustrated and described herein,those of ordinary skill in the art will appreciate that an arrangementcalculated to achieve the same results can be substituted for thespecific examples shown. This disclosure is intended to coveradaptations or variations of one or more examples of the presentdisclosure.

It is to be understood that the above description has been made in anillustrative fashion, and not a restrictive one. Combination of theabove examples, and other examples not specifically described hereinwill be apparent to those of skill in the art upon reviewing the abovedescription.

The scope of the one or more examples of the present disclosure includesother applications in which the above structures and methods are used.Therefore, the scope of one or more examples of the present disclosureshould be determined with reference to the appended claims, if provided,along with the full range of equivalents to which such claims areentitled.

Throughout the specification and claims, the meanings identified belowdo not necessarily limit the terms, but merely provide illustrativeexamples for the terms. The meaning of “a,” “an,” and “the” includesplural reference, and the meaning of “in” includes “in” and “on” Thephrase “in an embodiment,” used herein does not necessarily refer to thesame embodiment, although it may.

In the foregoing discussion of the present disclosure, reference is madeto the accompanying drawings that form a part hereof, and in which isshown by way of illustration how examples of the disclosure may bepracticed. These examples are described in sufficient detail to enablethose of ordinary skill in the art to practice the embodiments of thisdisclosure, and it is to be understood that other examples may beutilized and that process, electrical, and/or structural changes may bemade without departing from the scope of the present disclosure.

The figures attempt to follow a numbering convention in which the firstdigit or digits correspond to the drawing figure number and theremaining digits identify an element or component in the drawing.Similar elements or components between different figures may beidentified by the use of similar digits. For example, 108 may referenceelement “08” in FIG. 1, and a similar element may be referenced as 208in FIG. 2.

Elements shown in the various figures herein can be added, exchanged,and/or eliminated so as to provide a number of additional examples ofthe present disclosure. In addition, the proportion and the relativescale of the elements provided in the figures are intended to illustratethe examples of the present disclosure, and should not be taken in alimiting sense.

In Detailed Description, some features are grouped together in a singleembodiment for the purpose of streamlining the disclosure. This methodof disclosure is not to be interpreted as reflecting an intention thatthe disclosed examples of the present disclosure have to use morefeatures than are expressly recited in each claim.

Rather, as the following claims reflect, inventive subject matter liesin less than all features of a single disclosed embodiment. Thus, thefollowing claims are hereby incorporated into the Detailed Description,with each claim standing on its own as a separate embodiment.

What is claimed is:
 1. A computing device for communicating a document between a remote location and a customer service representative, the computing device comprising: a memory; and a processor configured to execute executable instructions stored in the memory to: establish a communication session between a customer at a remote location and a customer service representative; identify the remote location of the customer; identify a device available to be utilized at the remote location; establish control over the identified device to: capture information from a document using a capability of the identified device; transmit the captured information to the computing device.
 2. The computing device of claim 1, wherein the instructions to establish control by the computing device over the identified device include instructions to adjust by the computing device characteristics of the capture of the information from the document.
 3. The computing device of claim 1, wherein the processor is configured to execute executable instructions stored in the memory to forward the captured information from the document to the customer service representative based on the at least one of the identification information of the customer service representative or the session identifier of the communication session.
 4. The computing device of claim 1, wherein the information from the document includes an image of the document.
 5. The computing device of claim 1, wherein the information from the document includes information derived from an image of the document.
 6. The computing device of claim 1, wherein the device available to be utilized at the remote location includes a mobile device of the customer or a device installed at the remote location.
 7. The computing device of claim 1, wherein the instructions to establish control over the identified device include instructions to: add routing information to the captured information, the routing information comprising at least one of identification information of the customer service representative or a session identifier of the communication session; and transmit the captured information with the routing information to the computing device.
 8. The computing device of claim 7, wherein adding the routing information to the captured information includes adding at least one of a header and a code to the captured information.
 9. The computing device of claim 8, wherein the code includes an alpha numeric code.
 10. The computing device of claim 1, wherein identifying the remote location of the customer is based on an electronic communication received from a device of the customer at the remote location, wherein information identifying the remote location is inherent in the electronic communication received from the device of the customer.
 11. A computer-implemented method for communicating a document between a remote location and a customer service representative, the method comprising: establishing, by a computing device, a communication session between a customer at a remote location and a customer service representative; identifying, by a computing device, the remote location of the customer; identifying, by a computing device, a device available to be utilized at the remote location; establishing, by a computing device, control over the identified device to: capture information from a document using a capability of the identified device; and transmit the captured information to the computing device.
 12. The method of claim 11, further comprising receiving and processing customer identification information to identify a particular customer that is to be conducting the communication session.
 13. The method of claim 11, further comprising: monitoring incoming communications from the remote location; and forwarding the incoming communications to the a device of the customer service representative based on the at least one of the identification information of the particular customer service representative or the session identifier of the communication session.
 14. The method of claim 11, further comprising: saving the captured information to a document storage area; and providing the captured information to a device of an additional customer service representative.
 15. The method of claim 11, wherein establishing control over the identified device includes: adding routing information to the captured information, the routing information comprising at least one of identification information of the customer service representative or a session identifier of the communication session; and transmit the captured information with the routing information to the computing device.
 16. The method of claim 15, wherein adding the routing information to the captured information includes adding at least one of a header and a code to the captured information.
 17. The method of claim 16, wherein the code includes an alpha numeric code.
 18. The method of claim 11, wherein identifying the remote location of the customer is based on an electronic communication received from a device of the customer at the remote location, wherein information identifying the remote location is inherent in the electronic communication received from the device of the customer.
 19. A non-transitory computer-readable medium coupled to at least one computing device having instructions stored thereon which, when executed by the at least one computing device, cause the at least one computing device to perform operations comprising: establishing a communication session between a customer at a remote location and a customer service representative; identifying the remote location of the customer; identifying a device available to be utilized at the remote location; establishing control over the identified device to: capture information from a document using a capability of the identified device; and transmit the captured information to the at least one computing device.
 20. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 19, wherein the operations further comprise: receiving information about a device of the customer at the remote location and information about the remote location via an electronic communication received from the customer's device, wherein the information about the customer's device and the remote location is inherent in the electronic communication received from the customer's device; and identifying the remote location of the customer based on the received information about the customer's device and the remote location.
 21. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 20, wherein the information about the remote location includes at least one of: information associated with the remote location; or information about a device type of a device installed at the remote location.
 22. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 20, wherein the information about the customer's device includes at least one of: a location of the customer's device; or a device type of the customer's device.
 23. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 19, wherein the instructions to establish control over the identified device include at least one of: instructions to a scanner located at the remote location to scan the document; instructions to a printer at the remote location to print the document; or instructions to a mobile device of the customer to take an image of the document.
 24. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 19, wherein the instructions are executable to: provide the captured information to a device of the customer service representative based, at least in part, on the at least one of the identification information of the particular customer service representative or the session identifier of the communication session.
 25. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 19, wherein the instructions to establish control over the identified device include instructions to: add routing information to the captured information, the routing information comprising at least one of identification information of the customer service representative or a session identifier of the communication session; and transmit the captured information with the routing information to the computing device.
 26. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 25, wherein the instructions are executable to provide a routing cover sheet with the routing information to a device of the customer at the remote location.
 27. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 25, wherein adding the routing information to the captured information includes adding at least one of a header and a code to the captured information.
 28. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 27, wherein the code includes an alpha numeric code. 